Nikon AF-S Nikkor 35mm 1:1.8G DX review

The AF-S Nikkor 35mm F1.8G DX is Nikon's latest lens, announced in February for PMA 2009. Its introduction came as something of a surprise to many observers, not because it's an updated 35mm lens with a built-in autofocus motor, but because the 'DX' designation indicates that it's designed for use on DX format bodies, and isn't fully compatible with Nikon's growing FX format camera range. According to Nikon, this has allowed the company to design a lens that is smaller, lighter and cheaper than it would have been had it offered full coverage of the FX image circle. In effect, the lens is primarily targeted as an inexpensive, large aperture option for users of the entry-level (D40 / D40X /D60) series of DSLRs.

The 35mm focal length is roughly equivalent to 50mm on an FX camera, and the lens therefore fits into the 'standard' category, with an angle of view offering none of the 'perspective distortion' associated with wideangle or telephoto lenses. The fast F1.8 maximum aperture admits more than four times as much light as the AF-S 18-55mm F3.5-5.6G VR DX kit lens, which is useful for shooting in low light while keeping shutter speeds reasonably high. The 'Silent Wave Motor' allows autofocus on all of Nikon's DSLR bodies, with the added bonus of allowing the user to tweak focus manually in AF mode if desired.

The 35mm F1.8G features an optical design of 8 elements in 6 groups, including an aspherical element for the correction of aberrations usually associated with large aperture prime lenses. However unlike the typical 50mm standard prime for the full frame (FX) format, this lens's focal length is rather shorter than the flange distance from the lens mount to the imager. This necessitates the use of a so-called 'retrofocal' design, which is more usually associated with wideangle lenses; unfortunately this often results in increased aberrations relative to traditional near-symmetric 50mm designs. So how does the 35mm F1.8 DX measure up?

Headline features

35mm focal length; fast F1.8 maximum aperture

Silent Wave Motor allows autofocusing on all Nikon DSLRs

Full-time manual focus override

For DX format cameras

Angle of view

The picture below illustrates the angle of view (click here for comparisons with the Nikon 50mm F1.4D):

Comments

This lens did work properly on my D5500 -- it front focused terribly wide open. Upon doing research, I discovered that this lens does not play well with the D5500. Focus was better at smaller apertures, but then, that's not what I bought it for. I ended up sending it back. I also own the 50 mm prime and the 18-140 mm, both of which focus perfectly on the D5500.

About anything, really. It's a good "standard" lens so mostly, street shooting, group / portrait, even a tiny bit of Astro since it has a wide opening.However it's not as good for portrait than an 85, or landscape such as 20. Just a normal yet great lens (and cheap!)

I invested in buying this lens thinking it would perform much better than my 18-55mm kit lens and it does, but only marginally. I find the design not very robust and needs to be handled with great care. Compared to the kit 18-55 the results can be very erratic often being way over or underexposed even with exposure compensation adjusted accordingly. Bracketing also seems to have a more profound and unusuall effect than with my previous lens. The lens seems to have a somewhat unreliable way of getting the camera to choose the shutter speed when in A priority, this was not a problem with either of my previous lenses. I find I need to take at least a dozen shots before getting anywhere to near what I desire so unless you have loads of time to spare it could give you the perfect result but when you need a speedy and reliable result look elsewhere.

Don't forget, today's modern glass making can variate as well as assembly, but the quality is still in the upper 90 percentile off the products released into the market. . Although these lens and thier mechanics are incredibly sharp, you'll never get the results of a Carl Ziess, Rodenstock, Schneider etc,. unless you're shooting on saturated film or have your DSLR mounted bellows and an LF lens board. There's a way you can test image accuracy and quality to make sure you didn't get a bad lens which is more than often the issue when folks complain about the image or functionality of thier new lenses. Bob Atlins can explain this much better than I ever could, so here's a link. Hopefully it may solve some problems for you.. http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/technical/testing_lenses.html

It is an great lens for DX bodies. I bought it for my son he got my first camera (D3200) with two ND MRC filters,cause he like to enjoy me to landscape photography. It is just an great lens. I love it.

Recently I had the opportunity to play with one of this 35F1.8G from somebody else. Lens was sharp and I took about 40 pictures with it. Didn't like it. Full of plastic all over the lens, very cheap plastic, and most of all, made in China. Sorry, all the things I ever owned made in China was poor quality. The only Nikkor from now days that I want is that 14-24F2.8G-AF ED. This one I played with it and told it's owner, wow, this one is really good. It runs at 1,900. but I was very impressed with this one, and made in Japan.

This lens need an expensive body to work. On my D3200 it almost NEVER gets focus right, and its even worse when i use single point af.. But on my D600 it works just as good as my 50mm af-s 1.8... Strange lens..

With my D70s it's focusing just fine.With my D5500 it's bac-focusing, front-focusing or focusing right - you never know.In a white daylight it's better. In a golden afternoon/evening light or in warm bulbs light it's wost with focusing.Yes, my D5500 has ben at Nikon service for recalibration and little improvent.Moreover the focus range on the left side of the frame is much further than on the left.

It works perfectly well with my D3200, whatever focus mode. However I read a few people saying that the autofocus of this lens was lousy when they used it, then they sent it to Nikon to be serviced and it worked fine afterwards. So I don't know

on my D3200 it works just perfect and has very fast Auto focus. in the day light at f/1.8 I can shoot completely blind, just point it at every where around and just shoot it without looking what i'm shooting. and it get Autofocus and shoot just like boom boom boom ... chek your D3200 maybe something wrong with its setting

I must have gotten a good copy then, because it works perfectly on my D3100 and now my D5600. This is the lens that is on my camera 90% of the time. The only time I ever use another lens is when I need a zoom for greater reach, like at the zoo.

A great standard lens for Nikon DX cameras. A very sharp lens. Great value for money. I enjoy using this lens with my D3200, which makes a great walk about commbination. The manual focus ring lacks the finese of more expensive models and feels rather 'rough'. An ideal first prime lens which outshines kit zoom lenses.

Hey, I just stumbled across your site and am extremely grateful to you for the time and effort you have put into the whole site. I have used a Nikon for work on auto-everything and have done well by mediocre standards required for what I do (surveillance photos using long range f2.8 lenses at 300mm..), but am going away on vacation with my family and want to buy my own camera/lenses appropriate for the task at hand. Again, thanks!

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